Feds investigate Seattle gang ties to prostitution

West Seattle child prostitution trial in jury's hands

By LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Updated 10:00 pm, Wednesday, February 17, 2010

As a jury takes up the case of two West Seattle men accused of pimping children, federal authorities have launched a racketeering investigation into the Bloods-affiliated street gang to which the accused allegedly belong.

Following a three-week trial, a King County jury began deliberations Thursday in the cases against alleged West Side Street Mobb members Donta Walters and Gamada Abdullahi.

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Six other alleged members of the Street Mobb have been charged federally. Included in their number is convicted pimp Tyrone Bellinger, a suspect in an as-yet unsolved Tukwila slaying.

Credited by some with bringing the shadowy industry to light, the investigation and subsequent prosecutions -- referred to in federal court filings as "Operation Street Sweeper" -- centered on a street prostitution ring funding the Delridge neighborhood gang. Seattle and King County detectives identified a number of child prostitutes being worked by Street Mobb members, many teens themselves.

Prosecutors note that Mobb is an acronym rather than a misspelling -- Money Over Broke Bitches -- highlighting the role prostitution plays in the gang. Beyond that, though, prosecutors claim members of the gang have been extensively involved in bank fraud, assaults and slayings.

Walters, O'Donnell argued, found a 16-year-old runaway willing to sell her body and pass the proceeds on to him.

"She was raped -- raped -- on the streets of Seattle," O'Donnell said "Raped to put money in his pockets. …

"At the end of the day, they didn't give, give a care in the world about what happened to those girls."

Walters, 21, described that relationship while testifying in his own defense earlier this week. He denied having a hand in her prostitution, saying that she believed she hadn't had a "bad experience" on the street.

"I didn't really care what she did with herself," Walters said. "She's the person I love. She's my baby's mother."

Seattle detectives investigating Clark found that Walters and the girl had been arrested together in Las Vegas in December 2007. At the time, the unemployed Walters had $900 in his pocket; the girl was arrested for prostitution and returned to foster care in Washington.

Addressing the jury, defense attorney Kris Jensen acknowledged that much of what they'd heard during the three-week trial was hard to hear. But he cautioned jurors not to convict his client simply because of the world he lived in.

"This case, as I've said before, is full of bad stuff," he told the jury. "Stuff we don't want in our lives. …

"A person doesn't pull over and help a prostitute, because a person doesn't want any part of this."

Questioned about their relationship by O'Donnell, Walters denied pressuring the girl to prostitute but acknowledged that he'd berate her at time.

"Have you ever called (her) stupid?" O'Donnell asked.

"Yes," Walters replied.

"How many times?"

"A lot. …"

Defending his client, Jensen argued that the young woman and Walters were, and are, simply in a relationship.

"She testifies, 'He's my boyfriend. He testifies, 'She's my girlfriend,'" Jensen told the jury. "Just because you might find that she's a lost child … does not mean that Donta Walters is a pimp."

O'Donnell told jurors the girl lied at trial to protect Walters, diminishing his role in her activities.

"We're not talking about a seasoned adult, a 35-year-old or a 45-year-old," O'Donnell told the jury. "We're talking about a child here, a girl in foster care whose father is in prison."

"She's still on the hook," he added. "She believes he loves her."

Abdullahi stood accused of briefly pimping a girl who was also pimped by Clark.

While O'Donnell argued that the 20-year-old beat and pressured the teen into working for him within the gang, defense attorney Phillip Tavel retorted that the evidence presented was not sufficient to convict.

The effort was sparked in part by a recent study that identified more than 200 child prostitutes in the area, Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess said. The total number was estimated at 300 to 500 girls and boys.

"There's a darker side to our city and region that involves the traffic of young women and boys," said Burgess, a key supporter of the two-year pilot project. "We cannot turn away any more, and this is one initiative to address that."

As the King County jury considers the cases against Walters and Abdullahi, federal prosecutors are moving forward with a racketeering investigation into the Street Mobb's activities.

Following on recent charges against an alleged drug robbery "crew" linked to the gang, federal prosecutors plan to file additional indictments against an unspecified number of Street Mobb members, according to court records filed in a fraud case against two alleged members.